kleptein number
by CaideSin
Summary: I did a sick, sick thing to my love. My lack of loyalty, it swallowed him up. He squirmed and turned like a skeleton key.  [BalthierVaan][1sentence challenge]


**#01 - Ring**

"I've found something more valuable," he whispers, slipping the ring of a dead girl from a dead boy onto a pretty churl's finger.

**#02 - Hero**

"Basch is a hero," Balthier laments, pulling Vaan protectively back into the shadows with him, "but we are the ones who will survive."

**#03 - Memory**

One of Vaan's first memories is never having anything at all, it's natural that Balthier, with his sapphire wit and ruby determination, should become just another highly prized possession to him.

**#04 - Box**

"I feel boxed in when I stay in one place," Balthier complains, to which Vaan smiles, for boxes only hold treasure for the taking.

**#05 - Run**

Fran asks him if he will run when Balthier tells her he's gone.

**#06 - Hurricane**

The endearment that Vaan inspires with his guileless vindictive thievery overtakes Balthier like an unexpected hurricane on the most beautiful spring day he's ever seen.

**#07 - Wings**

Vaan's ship is called 'Revenant Wings' and, as she flies away, Balthier can only pray she will live up to her name.

**#08 - Cold**

Desert children, such as Vaan, deal poorly with the ice and snow of the mountain's peak, a fact which Balthier is only too smug to act as remedy.

**#09 - Red**

Vaan's eyes stir in the twilight, turning a dark tea-like red to which Balthier's affection drinks.

**#10 - Drink**

Vaan can drink him under the table at the Sandsea, but when they sit at Lady Ashe's table with port and sherry before them, it is Balthier who has the advantage, and takes it along with them to bed.

**#11 - Midnight**

Balthier is often asleep by midnight, just when Vaan begins to stir, like a little rat, and finds his way to the gil unsuccessfully hidden in the pockets of Balthier's discarded pants.

**#12 - Temptation**

Vaan deals in temptation and is willing to barter for the kind of 'treasure' only a pirate can bring to the table.

**#13 - View**

The view up from Lowtown is like staring into cold Limbo, leaving behind the sultry heat of Hell, it always reminds Balthier of Vaan.

**#14 - Music**

Vaan always knew Balthier was a poncy highbred, however, the music of his viol was far too sweet for him to even consider mocking.

**#15 - Silk**

Vaan is a great lover of silk; it's richness and quality, whereas Balthier is a great lover of sheets and the rolling thereon.

**#16 - Cover**

Vaan's broken body thrown over his to protect him is not the sort of cover Balthier wanted.

**#17 - Promise**

"The treasures of the world, Vaan," he says, when he really means himself.

**#18 - Dream**

Balthier dreams of his fairytale ending, it's perfect, even by a pirate's standards, it's the sort of ending that will never work as long as Vaan is the way he is.

**#19 - Candle**

Vaan swims in the shadows, cinnamon eyes dancing in the candlelight, inviting him to be devoured.

**#20 - Talent**

Vaan's talent is theft, theft of money, of affection, of hatred, of jealousy, or, perhaps, maybe...it's manipulation.

**#21 - Silence**

For one silent moment, Balthier knows Vaan is content, it will not last long, but he'll take his own satisfaction while he can, and he will revel in it.

**#22 - Journey**

"Journeys are for amassing treasure," Vaan purrs, reaching greedily for another kiss.

**#23 - Fire**

Vaan is being particularly vulgar today, mostly because he knows Balthier likes it: "Come on, Cap'n, light my fucking fire."

**#24 - Strength**

Vaan's strength hides itself behind the grime on his face.

**#25 - Mask**

The Garif, Vaan learns from Supinelu, wear masks that make them each unique, Balthier wears his to make him inconspicuous.

**#26 - Ice**

The sweetest memory they have together is of eating flavored ice from one another's mouths on the street's of Bhujerba in order to get people to notice them.

**#27 - Fall**

Balthier never falls, and that's, possibly, why Vaan is so dead set to trip him up.

**#28 - Forgotten**

"Your brother?" Balthier asks as Vaan's eyes dart away without a clear answer.

**#29 - Dance**

His dagger bites deep on one swing, clangs metallically on a shield for another, his scabbard slaps against his thigh, then he spins tightly, and heads roll, shots wavering emphatically upon the air.

**#30 - Body**

Vaan's body is well suited to the desert, thin and wiry, while Balthier is everything wrong to that world, water-fat and soft.

**#31 - Sacred**

Fran nurses Penelo's broken wrist, coddling more than she ever would, her sharp ears waiting for the rutting noises coming from the burial chamber to cease.

**#32 - Farewells**

Vaan shies away, "The leading man should always get the girl, right?"

**#33 - World**

Going down the stairs to Lowtown with Vaan is like entering a world of welcoming darkness, skittering secrets, and un-defendable purses; Balthier is right at home.

**#34 - Formal**

"So, this is where the Dalmascan treasury goes?" Vaan asks him as he eyes Balthier's ceremonial garb with awe, reaching out to finger the gold looped around his neck.

**#35 - Fever**

The fever in Vaan's blood is not for him, but, rather, what he can supply: treasures and adventure abound.

**#36 - Laugh**

The first time: "I'd very much like to slip my tongue in your mouth" Balthier said and Vaan's mouth quirked and he laughed.

**#37 - Lies**

"Of course I care more for you than for treasure!" Vaan protests, turning the silver ring about his finger anxiously.

**#38 - Forever**

"It's the kind of compliment I'll remember for as long as I can," Vaan laughs uncomfortably.

**#39 - Overwhelmed**

"Where's Balthier?" he cries, muscles aching, though the most surprising, most terrifying, most overwhelming ache of all is his heart as Penelo shakes her head.

**#40 - Whisper**

"Oh," Vaan whispers, garnet eyes shimmering out of the dark, before his tongue begins to explore the jewelry piercing Balthier's cock.

**#41 - Wait**

"Should I wait, Fran?" he asks and feels suitably chagrined when she laughs and asks, "Do you think he'll wait for you?"

**#42 - Talk**

Vaan bites gently around the ring in his ear, he has no interest in talking.

**#43 - Search**

"What is it you're searching for, Vaan?" Balthier sneers, because he knows it isn't entirely him.

**#44 - Hope**

The temptation to stay with Balthier forever, one person to know all his secrets, and share is soul, and his life, is terrifying and Vaan hopes someday he'll find a way to force himself to give in to it.

**#45 - Eclipse**

As the sun dies behind the metal wings descending upon the chill of Raithwall's tomb, while coming dawn yet shines in Ashe's hands, Balthier thinks he is becoming too involved in this war, however, where Dalmasca's Queen goes, Vaan will follow and so too will he.

**#46 - Gravity**

"Gravity and I have an understanding," Balthier crows, kissing away Vaan's cries that the skystones are weakening.

**#47 - Highway**

Walking down the highway of love is too trite a saying, even for Balthier, though, sadly, he can only control his mouth, well, even that is tenuous,but he definitely can't control his thoughts.

**#48 - Unknown**

Balthier doesn't know what he feels when Vaan looks to Basch with, he doesn't know what.

**#49 - Lock**

The streets have bred this thief well, the tools of his trade unequaled, for he has even broken past the chains Balthier set upon his heart and he has done it with unrivaled ease.

**#50 - Breathe**

Balthier cries, for Fran, only once and it's all Vaan can do to breath.

* * *

**Standard Disclaimers **


End file.
